looking at the BOS stuff, it describes itself as Opened bath, I thought the other guys had gone away from this system in favor of isolated technologies? to stop the air and oil mixing... Also I can find a fox 36 160 rc2 fit for £100 less than the BOS.

I'm not quite sure about the FOX 34 CTD, only thing gong for it as I can see if that its £10 cheaper that the 36, I'm sure the 36 is a nicer feeling fork.

Is there any benefit of going for the fit rc2 fox 36 over the open bath version? its about £300 cheaper... anyone aware of any bargains on a Fox 36 160 RC2 FIT? where is the best place to get them? cheapest place I have found doesn't come up on a google search.

Can't speak for rockshox, but most LBS can do oil/seal service for about £50
fox we do for about £40 for oil & seal, but ifyou need bushs or anything else weird done then off to mojo and with bushs you won't see change from £150.
Marzocchi, windwave do themselvs for like £65 inc bushs I think it is, maybe £80 inc the return postage which is hella cheap IMO.

Also to 'maintain' the warranty with FOX you have to service them at a registered service centre every 15, yes, FIFTH-TEEN hours of riding (thats every weekend in most peoples books!). The Kashima coated ones are slightly more durable from what I've seen

Somebody on here recently made an excellent comment on Bos stuff, alongoing the lines of " is the 2-3% increase in performance really worth the extra hassle of ownership, associated problems, uncertainty etc"
Have to say I hadn't looked at it like that but thought it was a good point well made!

As for forks, pick the ones that look sexiest, float your boat etc...cause the small difference in ride characteristics between them all isn't worth getting excited about. Seriously.

neallyman - Member
Somebody on here recently made an excellent comment on Bos stuff, alongoing the lines of " is the 2-3% increase in performance really worth the extra hassle of ownership, associated problems, uncertainty etc"
Have to say I hadn't looked at it like that but thought it was a good point well made!

When the air cartridge shits itself in the Alps and you can't get the parts quickly as you could with a Rock Shox.

The only things that will go wrong on my coil Lyrik are things I can afford to buy as spares to carry with me, eg 1x Mission Control Damper, Seals, Bushes and oil - and I can buy those spares from dozens and dozens of online shops and they always have the parts in stock. What's more, loads of shop mechanics know their way round them as they are often racers who have a lot of experience with the ubiquitous Boxxer. The Rock Shox service manual is good, they're easily user serviceable - whilst the BOS forks aren't.

Honourable George....
I should have qualified my statement by saying currently I own 2 sets of Bos forks. A set of 2k idyll rare and a set of devilles. Start with the devilles. It took 3 pairs from r53 before I got a set that worked. The set I have now are awesome, but it was weeks of struggle initially. Then my rare's...after 9 months of ownership all was fine, until the seals blew in Spain a few weeks back, oil and air mix basically rendered them useless and, unlike the mainstream forks, nothing you can do to sort them.

There's a big difference between the quoted 2 years and reality (9 months). As for fox's 15 hrs, quite easy to for yourself and I've had plenty pairs that lasted way longer without.

As I said, I'm actually a Bos exponent/enthusiast, but the extra 2-3% is not worth the hassle.

I think realistically I'm looking at either the Lyrik RC2L dual position with the DH mod or the fox 36 rc2 fit. service intervals are pretty close, can get the lyriks for about £700 and the fox for about £800. anyone seen them at better prices?

dunno in all honesty... when I spoke to loco about sourcing some he said That he could do me the RC2L with the DH mod and leave me the bits in the box if I ever wanted to put it back together, they have changed slightly this year I believe, you can no longer lower travel with a spacer you need to buy a different length stack... so maybe other bits have changed slightly too.

Possibly the case, I know there was a bit of an issue with lowering some of the 2012 forks too, which was annoying as my wife has some 170's on her bike which I wanted to lower, and it's proving to be a challenge.

Nice forks though - I tweaked mine a bit & you can really change how they feel with a few simple mods to pretty much the ideal for you. The only thing that put me off was the inner weight weenie in me.